We Condemn the Escalation of Threats and Calls for Violence Against Marinika Tepić and Women in Public Life

We strongly condemn all threats, calls for violence, and misogynistic speech directed at Marinika Tepić, Vice President of the Party of Freedom and Justice. For years, she has been the target of systematic attacks, while the threats against her are increasingly spreading and multiplying between the physical and virtual spaces.

As early as 2020, slogans reading “Marinika Tepić will get a hammer” appeared on the walls and fences of public buildings. This threat did not remain merely graffiti. It moved onto social media, became a slogan of hatred, and created an atmosphere in which violence against her was treated as acceptable. At the same time, the virtual space is now generating new threats that can easily turn into physical danger.

A recent post invoking the historical practice of publicly shaving the heads of women accused of collaborating with occupying forces, while openly suggesting a similar “punishment” and targeting specific female accounts, is a clear example of this mechanism. Such speech is not political criticism. It is a call for public humiliation and symbolic violence. When women in public life are compared to “collaborators with the occupiers” and methods of degradation are proposed against them, a red line has been crossed.

We demand:

• an unequivocal and public condemnation of calls for violence by all political actors;

• an immediate response from the competent institutions to threats and hate speech.

From the moment we remove the SNS regime, such speech will no longer be possible. Threats against women will disappear from public discourse and public spaces. Those who engage in such acts will be left behind closed doors.

Until victory!